Wayward children

My wayward son – Greebo turned up on the back lawn this morning. He was gone for four days, and I was sure he was dead. He looks a little thinner and was full of the purring and the smooching and the “you missed me? why foolish humans, I’m here aren’t I? Now feed me damnyou!”

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Have I told you how fantastic my kids are? Yeah, I know..every parent says that about their own kids, but in my case, it’s actually the truth. I have two of the most amazing children in the entire world. Yesterday, they came home from school with their end of year school reports – because unlike you, odd Americans, with your winter at the wrong time of the year, our school year finishes at the end of this week for the summer holidays.

Every year, I look forward to the end of year school reports, and every year, I am never let down by those kids. The highlights for me are the teacher’s comments, and of course, their results in English, because..you know, it’s my subject. Both of them are improving in mathematics which is great too of course, you want to have your kids be great at everything, of course..they can’t be and I like to give credit where credit is due. The fact that unlike me, they actually try to understand numbers is more than enough for me.

I’ll start with Siobhan, because after all, she is the oldest. Siobhan’s report doesn’t have her reading age this time around, she’s just turned 11, and the last time they recorded it it was around 15 years plus. Her writing is improving, and she was selected for a creative writing course earlier in the year, most of you have seen her poetry, it was awesome. Siobhan surprises me with her ability to learn languages. She has a real talent for it. I think it’s all the reading perhaps, she retains information really incredibly. She has a wee Korean friend who has been there this year. Siobhan was chosen to be this girls buddy at the beginning of the year, because she is such a sweet girl, she’s always thinking about the well-being of other people and likes to have them feel like they belong. These two developed a really close friendship and have been best friends all year. She is leaving at the end of the school year, I’m sad about this, because they have developed a really close bond. Siobhan bought her a beautiful little bracelet from the Gondola shop, it is linked little silver kiwis with different coloured paua inlays. It’s really lovely. She has learnt how to speak and write Korean over the last 6 months from this girl. She can introduce herself, her family and write the characters, she knows how to say all our names and goodness knows what else in Korean. She is also very good with Maori language. In fact, she’s mastered all the basics they have taught her, and got every answer correct in the test they just had where they had to write the answers in Maori. In her teacher’s comments, you always hear how quiet and kind she is, and how she always works really hard. Her teacher says she has made huge progress in both numeracy and literacy. I am very proud of her.

Aleeya’s report was more of a surprise actually. She is always quiet in class and we’re always told how shy she is when speaking, however her report says that she participates fully in class discussions and justifies her ideas and opinions positively and effectively. I’m really impressed. This year she has had a male teacher, he is quite young and delightful. He’s a new addition to the school and a real blessing I have to say. It was funny, during the first week, when I always go up to their classrooms with them to get myself familiarised with the teachers, I noticed some of the other mothers, you know the type, the ones who are overweight and slob around in tracksuits constantly – were turning up with their hair done and lovely clothing on and full of smiles. Not that I could blame them, he really is rather stunning. Aleeya has responded really well to having him as her teacher this year. She’s an amazingly clever girl anyway, but I think this year she’s really come out of her shell and shown people what she is truly capable of. He has written a special note in her report stating that her reading age is 12+ years and that her comprehension is very good. Her spelling age is 13 years. Let’s not forget that Aleeya is turning 9 next Wednesday. She has always been an impressive speller, but to be spelling at high school level in her 4th year of school really blows me away. Her teacher has written in his comments that she has “maintained the same superb effort through all curriculum areas and never let her high standards slip at any point.” He goes on to say that she “continues to entertain with her unique writing style…” amongst a lot of other really heart warming, tear jerking wonderfulness that just make you as a parent feel really really proud of the fact you have raised two wonderful, clever little individuals.

Ollie’s Japanese Builder Friend gives us Japanese sweets and crackers for the girls, he gave us these fantastic little sweet animal crackers which the girls have been mad on. Each little animal has it’s name on it, just in case you’re not sure what it is. The other day, Aleeya came bursting out of the kitchen with the little box in her hands going “Mum, mum, look! I’ve got a cock!”